Fire Safety

Aico are delighted to announce the launch of their very own awards ceremony – the Community Awards.

Designed to recognise excellence within social housing and the local community, the Aico | HomeLINK Community Awards have 11 different categories, all of which are now open to entries, from College Initiative of the Year to the Rising Star Award, the Women in Fire Safety Award to the Best Distributor of the Year, including a Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative award.

Entries close on Thursday 31st March 2022 with finalists announced in early April, ahead of the awards ceremony taking place in May. The inaugural ceremony will be held at the International Convention Centre, Birmingham with host George Clarke, architect, and TV presenter, renowned in the industry. With an evening of celebration, recognition, and entertainment, the Aico | HomeLINK Community Awards will celebrate the achievements of inspirational individuals and organisations working within social housing and the local community; innovating, demonstrating excellence, and putting people first.

Following a recent government consultation, the regulations for Smoke and Carbon Monoxide alarms in England are set to expand for both privately and socially rented homes. The amendments will seek to increase resident safety and bring more consistency to regulations between the rental sectors.
The consultation proposed to amend the Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015 and Approved Document J, with the aim of extending the existing private rented legislation to socially rented properties; it also considered the important question of whether the existing legislation was sufficient.

New hub helps specifiers construct safe, comfortable and sustainable homes

Predictions suggest that an additional 9.3 million people will move to the UK’s cities by 20221, driving the trend for vertical construction to create more space for homes. In response, ROCKWOOL has developed a new high rise hub designed to support the specification of non-combustible stone wool insulation solutions for residential projects – ultimately helping specifiers to meet stringent fire safety, thermal and acoustic requirements while constructing high rise properties.

A central feature of the new hub is ROCKWOOL for High Rise Residential Projects, a comprehensive guide which explores the role of tall buildings in our society and focuses on key high rise topics including fire safety, thermal comfort, energy efficiency, acoustic performance and sustainability. Containing specific building regulations guidance as well as stone wool insulation case studies, advice and best practice, ROCKWOOL for High Rise Residential Projects is the go-to resource for high rise developers and specifiers.

With fire safety the dominant issue in housing today, it is always a pleasure to see such refurbishment projects successfully completed. We spoke to Richard Izzard, managing director of aluminium decking manufacturer AliDeck, to discuss their contribution to a recent major fire safety remediation project for Hyde Housing.

When new customers contact us at Colt about setting up their contracts, we frequently get asked a few common questions. If you have just taken over management of a new building and are unsure about where to start with your fire safety systems maintenance schedule, this article may have some of the answers you are looking for.

After 18 months of virtual events, Aico is delighted to return to physical exhibitions. On 7th-10th September, the European Market Leader in Home Life Safety exhibited at two events simultaneously, Housing 2021 and The Fire Safety Event, to promote best practice and the latest technology.

Housing 2021 is the Chartered Institute of Housing’s award-winning annual conference and Europe’s leading housing festival, which took place at the Manchester Central Convention Complex. The event provides a platform for the housing sector to come together to discuss, debate, partner, learn and improve the lives of the people they house.

As legislation has continued to evolve following Grenfell, achieving fire safety has become the major challenge for property managers and building owners across the UK. We spoke to Richard Izzard, managing director of aluminium decking manufacturer AliDeck, to find out more about effective solutions for full compliance.

Fire safety remains the major concern in the housing sector. Despite several years of legislation and regulation updates, however, a settled conclusion seems remote. The industry-led EWS1 initiative attempted to provide clarity on risk for lenders and unblock the market but was quickly undermined by changing Government advice relating to height of affected buildings.